Innocent and Gone: Israeli Strike on Gaza Kills Four Children

byAyman MohyeldinandPaul Ziad Nassar

Palestinian employees of Gaza City's al-Deira hotel carry a wounded boy following an Israeli military strike nearby on the beach, on July 16, 2014. Four children were killed in Gaza City during the attack, medics said, in Israeli shelling witnessed by AFP journalists. All four were on the beach when the attack took place, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, with several injured children taking refuge at a nearby hotel where journalists were staying. AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEXTHOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty ImagesTHOMAS COEX / AFP - Getty Images

Zakaria’s father rushed to the hospital after hearing of the attack only to learn that his son had been killed. “He was my only son ... he died with his cousins, they all died together,” he told NBC News.

“We live by the coast. There was a headline on the news that four children were injured ... so we went looking for the kids and we could not find them, so we came here to the hospital to look for them and we found them all, including my son ... oh my God.”

"When the first shell hit the land, they ran away but another shell hit them all," said Abu Hassera, 22, whose shirt was stained with blood. "It looked as if the shells were chasing them," he told Reuters.

Israel’s military has warned tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes as the conflict escalates, raising fears that a full ground invasion of Gaza is imminent. However, many do not heed the warnings because Hamas dismisses them as psychological propaganda – and because it is not immediately clear where Palestinians are supposed to go while the entire Gaza Strip is under threat of Israeli airstrikes.

The Gaza beach area has been shelled frequently since Israel began its offensive in the enclave on July 8 following a surge in Palestinian cross-border rocket strikes.

Wednesday's strikes brought the Palestinian death toll in the nine-day conflict to 213 – including 43 children – with 1,600 wounded, according to Hamas.

On the Israeli side, one man was killed Tuesday and several people were wounded - the first death in the Jewish state since the fighting erupted on July 8. The Israeli victim, Dror Hanin - who was killed by a mortar shell near the Erez crossing - was expected to be buried later Wednesday.

Hamas officially told Egypt Wednesday that it has rejected the proposed truce, but Tuesday’s volley of rockets into southern Israel had already dashed hopes of a cease-fire.